Many forms of containers have been used for shipping stacks of sheets (e.g., stacks of rectangular or round abrasive covered sheets) from the manufacturer of the sheets to the consumer. Paper or plastic envelopes have been used, as have cardboard boxes. In some instances, the consumer retains the stack of sheets in the container as they are dispensed or withdrawn for use, whereas in other instances the stack of sheets is transferred from the shipping container to a separate dispenser before the sheets are dispensed or withdrawn for use.
As an example, using cardboard boxes to ship stacks of abrasive covered sheets or disks to consumers requires the use of a large number of different boxes to accommodate the different grades of abrasives and diameters of disks that may be sold. Disks of different diameters require boxes of different widths. Also, stacks of the same number of disks with different grades of abrasive adhered to them can have significantly different heights, and therefore require boxes of different heights. Additionally, the boxes are typically printed with different nomenclature to indicate the type and size of abrasive they contain. The need to prepare and inventory so many different boxes adds significant cost for the manufacturer, and the consumer must dispose of the boxes after the sheets are removed. Dispensing or withdrawing abrasive disks from such boxes may not be as convenient as is sometimes desired, so that special dispensers are sometimes supplied by the manufacturer for use by the consumer at little or no cost to the consumer, but at significant cost to the manufacturer.